A Profile of Consumer Bankruptcy Petitioners

Utah ranks first in the nation in the number of consumer bankruptcies per household. This study describes 2,567 Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 cases filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Utah in 1997. Median debt level was $31,981 for Chapter 7 and$41,626 for Chapter 13 cases. While Utah boasts a high proportion of Chapter 13 repayment plans, only 10.8% of these cases were successfully completed. Debtors tended to be young, single earners, with short job tenure. Evidence also pointed to Utah’s low per capita income and large families as other contributors to bankruptcy

Financial Education Program Evaluation

This study illustrates the process of program evaluation using a logic model. Guided by the Transtheoretical Model of Change and a logic model, this study evaluated the effectiveness of a Retirement and Savings Seminar by measuring participant (n = 54) satisfaction, financial knowledge, financial confidence, and financial behavior change compared to a similar group of 134 non-participants. Participants were very satisfied with the seminar. Their financial knowledge and confidence scores significantly increased from pretest to posttest. Financial knowledge and confidence scores improved more than the comparison group while controlling for group differences in age, income, and pretest scores. Two months later, participants were more likely than the comparison group to have adopted positive financial behaviors as measured by the Financial Preparedness for Retirement Scale. Financial educators can use this study as a model for planning, conducting, and evaluating their program

Personal Finance: An Interdisciplinary Profession

This commentary recommends that financial counseling and planning research, education, and practice be framed as an interdisciplinary profession called personal finance. Authors summarize the history of the profession and key theories providing the conceptual foundation. In order for the emerging profession of personal finance to achieve significant visibility and gain maturity, professionals must reach consensus on definining collective scholarship. Readers are encouraged to engage in the dialogue and comment on the call to action by contacting the lead author

RHYTHM-AF: design of an international registry on cardioversion of atrial fibrillation and characteristics of participating centers

BACKGROUND Atrial fibrillation is a serious public health problem posing a considerable burden to not only patients, but the healthcare environment due to high rates of morbidity, mortality, and medical resource utilization. There are limited data on the variation in treatment practice patterns across different countries, healthcare settings and the associated health outcomes. METHODS/DESIGN RHYTHM-AF was a prospective observational multinational study of management of recent onset atrial fibrillation patients considered for cardioversion designed to collect data on international treatment patterns and short term outcomes related to cardioversion. We present data collected in 10 countries between May 2010 and June 2011. Enrollment was ongoing in Italy and Brazil at the time of data analysis. Data were collected at the time of atrial fibrillation episode in all countries (Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom), and cumulative follow-up data were collected at day 60 (±10) in all but Spain. Information on center characteristics, enrollment data, patient demographics, detail of atrial fibrillation episode, medical history, diagnostic procedures, acute treatment of atrial fibrillation, discharge information and the follow-up data on major events and rehospitalizations up to day 60 were collected. DISCUSSIN A total of 3940 patients were enrolled from 175 acute care centers. 70.5% of the centers were either academic (44%) or teaching (26%) hospitals with an overall median capacity of 510 beds. The sites were mostly specialized with anticoagulation clinics (65.9%), heart failure (75.1%) and hypertension clinics (60.1%) available. The RHYTHM-AF registry will provide insight into regional variability of antiarrhythmic and antithrombotic treatment of atrial fibrillation, the appropriateness of such treatments with respect to outcomes, and their cost-efficacy. Observations will help inform strategies to improve cardiovascular outcomes in patients with atrial fibrillation. TRIAL REGISTRATION Clinical trials NCT01119716Harry JGM Crijns, Lori D Bash, François Chazelle, Jean-Yves Le Heuzey, Thorsten Lewalter, Gregory YH Lip, Aldo P Maggioni, Alfonso Martín, Piotr Ponikowski, Mårten Rosenqvist, Prashanthan Sanders, Mauricio Scanavacca, Alexandra A Bernhardt, Sreevalsa Unniachan, Hemant M Phatak and Anselm K Git

Predictors of Chapter 13 Completion Rates: The Role of Socioeconomic Variables and Consumer Debt Type

Bankruptcy, Chapter 13, Completion, Debtor, Logit,

Descriptive Analysis of Reverse Mortgage Counseling Clients

This study describes demographics of clients seeking a Reverse Mortgage (RM) in a Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) approved counseling center to understand why seniors seek RMs and to document how counseled seniors who followed through received their RM funds. Their main reasons for seeking a reverse mortgage were to pay off an existing mortgage, increase income, and pay off consumer debt. Only about half of the sample who received the mandatory pre-purchase counseling decided to obtain the reverse mortgage. Implications for practitioners, including the high cost of RMs, the decreasing median age of an RM mortgagor, and the increasing demand of this lending product are presented along with updates on major changes in HUD reverse mortgage regulations

The Effects of Financial Education on Impulsive Decision Making

Delay discounting, as a behavioral measure of impulsive choice, is strongly related to substance abuse and other risky behaviors. Therefore, effective techniques that alter delay discounting are of great interest. We explored the ability of a semester long financial education course to change delay discounting. Participants were recruited from a financial education course (n = 237) and an abnormal psychology course (n = 80). Both groups completed a delay-discounting task for $100 during the first two weeks (Time 1) of the semester as well as during the last two weeks (Time 2) of the semester. Participants also completed a personality inventory and financial risk tolerance scale both times and a delay-discounting task for$1,000 during Time 2. Delay discounting decreased in the financial education group at the end of the semester whereas there was no change in delay discounting in the abnormal psychology group. Financial education may be an effective method for reducing delay discounting